


my little brother is a wizard

by itsfictionbitch



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic, Magic, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23680735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsfictionbitch/pseuds/itsfictionbitch
Summary: Barley loves to rant to his little bro about magic.
Relationships: Barley Lightfoot & Ian Lightfoot, Barley Lightfoot/Ian Lightfoot
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> barley is 7-8 and ian is 4-5

“Ian! Ian! Ian! Listen to this!” Barley mused, running to see Ian and Laurel waiting to pick him up in the hallway of the school. “ People used to be able to do all sorts of stuff just by saying words! Like making things float and grow! It was called magic!”

Laurel snickered silently to herself, seeing the sparkle in both of her children's eyes. She led them to the car while listening to Barley enthuse about his new interest. “People didn't used to have electricity and magic could make fire so they could cook food and stay warm and there are even spells that make fireworks!” Laurel swore she was blessed with the nicest, cutest kids ever.

By the time the family pulled into the driveway Barley had already given Ian a wizard name which the two happily sang while running through the gate into the backyard to play “ it seems your crops are not growing, and what’s that there are bandits trying to raid your village?” Barley said setting up an imaginary medieval village. 

“Have no worries Iandor the powerful and Barley the brave are here to save the day!” the boys announced to the yard, the imaginary citizens cheering around them as Barley waved a stick pretending to fight off the invading bandits and ian twirled around chanting “firework”. A few hours later and the boys had saved the lightfoot relm and were called in for dinner and a bath. 

“I heard you boys playing outside. you know, your mother knows a thing or two about magic, too!” Laurel said to the two boys in the tub while scrubbing shampoo into Ian’s tangly hair. When she saw two sets of eyes sparkle up at her and silence fell between them, she started her story, “ A long long time ago, even before wizards, magic existed within everyone. But it was still very hard to use. Most people could only do very simple spells.” She paused the story to run the water over Ian’s bubbly hair and for Barley to dunk his head under the water to remove his own bubbles. “ One day a young boy, not much older than Barley, was gathering wood to burn in his family's hearth. After picking up a few sticks, he accidently fell into a hole!” As her boys gasped in suspense, Laurel took the chance to squeeze some conditioner into Barley's hands and Ian's hair. Laurel’s gut twinged at the thought that Barley was only so independent because Wilden wasn't around and Barley felt he had to fill that place. Pushing the thought aside she continued her story “ It turned out one that of the sticks the boy had collected was from a special kind of tree, grown with magic from nature. While he was falling, he willed himself to float and the stick he was holding burst with light creating a gust of wind that lifted him out of the hole. And that is why wizards use staffs and wands, they focus the power inside everyone.” Laurel punctuated the end of her story by softly touching the tips of both boy’s noses. After putting one last rinse it was time to get pj's on and tuck the boys into bed for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Each day seemed to have a similar pattern since that first day Barley had learned about magic. Laurel had heard from some other mothers in the school that they had bought a game called quests of yore which they used to get their children to learn history. So while barley was at school Laurel took Ian to the game store and bought a basic game set for the boys which she had decided to give them before introducing them to her new boyfriend. 

"barley there is a surprise for you in the car." Laurel informed her oldest child in the school hallway. She watched as her boys ran to the car with excitement. 

Barley swung open the door of the car as fast as he could, looking around until he saw a box on the seat "A game?" Barley questioned "what is it about?"

"It's about magic and history." Informed laurel as oo's and ah's erupted from the boys. "Tonight we have a dinner guest so we can all play together after supper, does that sound alright?" She received an answer by the two boys nodding and climbing into the car. After checking all the seat belts laurel drove home and started cooking dinner. 

A knock came at the door as laurel was setting the table, she rushed over as she called the boys in from the back yard "Ian! Barley! Come inside there is someone I want you to meet!" 

"Hi im chad!" Said a large minotaur who was wearing a button-up and a tie. "I am happy to meet you both." 

Ian seemed happy enough to meet someone new and introduced himself. Barley on the other hand was far more cautious about a new man in their lives, laurel had not brought home many people since Wilden’s passing and even when she did they were usually work friends. It's not that she didn't want to find someone new for a while, but more about healing from her loss and once she had pulled herself together she found herself too busy either raising the boys or working. It was hard to provide enough for them all at times on a single mother pay check. 

The dinner passed quite fast as the two younger elves rushed though their meal in hopes to play their new game as soon as they could. "How would you all like to go camping with me this weekend?" Chad asked Laurel while helping clean up the table. 

"I think that would be very fun, the boy's have never actually been camping before! What will we need?" Laurel asked as she grabbed a piece of paper to write down all the supplies that Chad couldn't provide himself. While she was writing and talking with Chad in the kitchen Barley and Ian were opening the box to quests of yore and taking all manner of things out of it. Ripping open packaging to get the board pieces out and flipping through the books pages 

"Ian look! Real spells" Barley said shoving the book in the smaller boys' face gaining an “ooh” in response. The boys flipped through some pages of the book before getting distracted by the figurines. "You can be the wizard Ian!" Barley said putting the matching figure in his brother's hand. 

"Why don't you go help the boys set up the game? I'll finish the dishes." Laurel told Chad hoping all the boys would get along since there wasn't a lot of time for them to get to know each other over dinner. Chad nodded and walked over to help the boys set up the board.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not beta read yet will edit later..

Light filtered through the canopy of the forest as the lightfoot family’s car kicked up dust on the gravel road behind them. The car started slowing down until it came to a complete stop in front of a small clearing with a large tent pitched up beside a pickup truck.

"Ok boys, Now we are here!" Laurel answered the question her children had been asking for what seemed to be the whole drive to the forest, only interrupted by 'i spy' games and bad singing. This was met with cheers from the boys, opening the doors to run around and roll on the grass. When Barley stood up Laurel dusted him off, and licked her finger to clean his face off much to his dismay. 

“ You are in nature now Laurel, those boys won't be clean for a while.” Chad laughed coming through the trees with firewood in one arm and an axe in the other hand. He dropped the wood into a pile about 3 meters away from the tents and walked over to give Laurel a hug and a kiss. Something twisted in Berleys gut at seeing this guy and his mom doing that and it wasn’t just cooties. Ian on the other hand hadn't even seen what happened, as his attention was focused on a grasshopper that was always one jump ahead of him. Barley, deciding to ignore the adults, grabbed his spell book out of the car and ran over to ian. 

“Hey Barwey! Gashopper.” Ian mumbled, he had been a very silent toddler and only just began to try talking a bit after his fourth birthday. 

“Yeah! That’s a grasshopper, ian. But they are really hard to catch!” Barley corrected his little brother. He walked around the grasshopper to be on the other side. “ you gotta move really slow, until you get close enough.” he crept up behind the grasshopper and then suddenly jumped startling Ian and the grasshopper, but Barley was faster and cupped his palms around the bug keeping them closed. Once the grasshopper calmed down Barley opened his hand in front of ian, so he could see the it. 

The grasshopper jumped onto Ians hair and then flew away leaving once more a startled Ian for Barley to calm down in its wake. While Barley tried to calm Ian down between his laughter he did not notice Chad walking over to them. “Why don’t you boys go play fantasy in the forest while your mother and I unpack.” Chad said handing Barley the axe he had been using earlier. “ All barbarians need a weapon. Just be back in time for dinner.” the boys looked at each other and shrugged, the forest was enticing so they agreed to go and play.

Barley and Ian ran into the forest behind the campsite setting off on what to them was another of their many epic quests. Barley with the quests of yore spell book in one hand and the axe. He pointed the axe toward a part of the forest where the trees were interweaved to form a tunnel "Onward Ho, Brother!" Barley belted with the deepest voice he could summon, which was still quite high.   
The boys ran up to the tunnel Barley slightly ahead of Ian urging him on. Barley suddenly pretended to hit an invisible door. "Ahh! A gate! Iandor you need to cast a spell to unlock the gate" Barley opened his spell book so that Ian could see it aswell. Flipping through a few of the pages they found a door unlocking spell. “ Non-Clauglas. Can you say that Ian?” Barley looked up at his little brother. 

“N..Non cwau-” ian tried.

“Clau. La..la” Barley repeated so that Ian could mimick him. “ you can do it, I believe in you!”

Ian took a step towards the archway and waved his hands around. “Non-Claugas” Barley figured the improvement was huge for Ian and pretended the door was opening, humming a little tune. 

“It’s open Ian! I knew you could do it!” Barley ran into the tunnel pulling Ian along with him, Ian now holding the spell book. “ Oh! You know what you need Ian? You need a wizard staff!” Barley let go of Ian’s hand and looked around. Finding what he was looking for barley stalked over to a tree that had some long sprouts rising from the base next to the roots. He pulled the axe back and swung chopping a part of the new branch, just taller than Ian, off. A bright blue light flashed fast enough to make Barley think it was a dream, leaving only a new leaf bud in place of the branch. Barley dismissed the event thinking his imagination was just going wild. 

Ian took the new staff from Barley. “Thank you Barley.” Ian pronounced Barleys name correctly for the first time, making his older brother’s eyes water. 

Barley wrapped the arm that wasn’t holding the axe around Ian’s shoulders pulling him in for a tight hug. They walked through the tunnel, vision tinted a sparkling green from the canopy. The noises of nature took the boys deeper into their fantasy barley defeating enemies, and lifting Ian over the tangled roots of trees across the path.

The tunnel opened into a large clearing with one tree in the middle yet taking up their entire view with its winding branches and large canopy that seemed to be filtering rainbows now. There was a small stream that circled around the base of the tree and seemed to spring from the base of the tree. 

“Lets go over there ian, though the river is too big we might need a spell to get over it!” BArley said knowing full well he could hop over the small stream without any magic. The two opened the book again huddling close and flipping through page after page. “ oh this one Ian! Aloft Elavar!” He repeated the spell a few times to make sure Ian was pronouncing it correctly. “ ready Ian?” Barley questioned waiting for a nod from Ian and began a running start for the stream. 

As soon as Barley’s feet left the ground he heard Ian’s voice “Aloft Elavar”. Barley’s smile made his eyes scrunch up with happiness and pride in his little brother. After a few seconds he noticed he had not hit the ground yet, opening his eyes he noticed he was surrounded in a sparkling blue glow. A second later his eyes met a panicked Ian’s, after another he was hitting the ground a lot harder than he had expected too. “ Bawey! I’m sowwy I'm sowwy!” Ian began to cry from across the stream. 

“My.. little brother… is a .. wizard.” Barley stood up shocked at what had just happened, and with a slight limp. “MY LITTLE BROTHER IS A WIZARD!” Barley repeated in an excited yell, dismissing all the pain from the fall he jumped across the stream and ran over to hug Ian.


End file.
